


For Want of a Cybertronian Nail

by Mr_Chaos



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Welding, Charlie is a good mom, Smart Mikaela, happily adopted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:21:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24423454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mr_Chaos/pseuds/Mr_Chaos
Summary: When Mikaela's father dies while she is only a few months old her mother Rebecca has a chance encounter with Charlie Watson, someone who already has had dealings with a certain robotic alien race. This is the story of how Charlie not just changed Mikaela's life for the better but the lives of the Autobots and possibly Earth and Cyberton as well.A series a snapshot chapters that detail first how Charlie comes to be in Mikaela's life before zipping to the movies and seeing how this new family dynamic will alter the stories. Wouldn't it be nice if things worked out so much better for the Autobots?
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	1. Meeting

Meeting

August 3rd, 1991   
Brighton Falls

"Name?" 

"Rebecca Banes... Shooter. Rebecca Shooter. I called about the Firebird?" She grimaced as the old man running the desk arched an eyebrow at that but after a moment he merely shrugged and slide his chair over to a phone that looked like it was nearly as old as he was and began to dial. Rebecca was glad that he hadn't pressed her as frankly she didn't know if she would have screamed at him or began sobbing and telling him the entire story. She'd done both so far that week, the former to a bank teller and the later to a startled cashier at Dominos, and she wasn't in the mood for a repeat performance. 

She knew that many widows kept their married name but frankly she wasn't in the mood to have any more reminders of Colin and his stupidity. All he had needed to do was go to work at the shop and then come home and tinker with his car and spend time with his family. But no, not Colin. He decided to go out and get drunk with the boys because he didn't want to admit that even though he was only 24 years old he couldn't act like he was a young man anymore. She wanted to have fun and be carefree but they had to be mature. Responsible. But Colin couldn't handle that so instead he went out, downed too many beers and ended up flying out of his friend's car when they hit a lightpost because he’d refused to wear a seatbelt. Not that it would have helped as everyone in the car had ended up dying from that wreck.

That was the official story, at least. Rebecca had found out the unofficial tale from the officers when they'd brought her down to the station the next day. While they couldn't prove anything they were very sure that Colin had been involved with a car theft ring they’d been investigating and Colin’s group had been chased off the road by a rival club that didn't kindly to them muscling in on their turf. She had sat there and silently listened, reacting with the stunned silence that the police would expect of her while inside she had seethed. She had known he was doing something stupid, what with his big talk about finally finding a way to net them all the cash they needed. She'd even asked him if he was doing something illegal and he'd pleaded that it was on the up and up... so of course he had been lying to her. 

'Of course this is your own damn fault,' she thought to herself while the old man continued to talk on the phone. 'Maybe if you had a better taste in men...' The problem was that she had a type and she knew it. While many women dreamed of marrying some rich guy that would let them live a pampered life of lounging by the pool eating chocolates and worrying about how they'd squeeze in their nail appointment into their not-busy-at-all schedule Rebecca did not find the suit and tie crowd to be her style. Not that she really found any men to be her style but she did like men that worked with their hands, that enjoyed the simple things in life, and who didn't put on smug airs. Money was nice and all but rather than gravitate towards the attractive jet-setters that were planning to go to college to get their master degrees or make their name in Hollywood she had preferred to hang out with the shop kids and watch them work on their cars. 'And see where that got you. All alone.'

A gurgle below her reminded her that wasn't entirely true.

Mikaela's eyes fluttered open for a moment and the nine month old looked at her before promptly going back to sleep. It was a small miracle... frankly her daughter was getting to the point where soon she'd want to be dashing all over the place but thankfully today she was quiet and sleepy and willing to let Rebecca get her errands done without much fussing. 

"Alright... great. Yeah." The old man hung up the phone and rolled back over to her. "Charlie will be here in a moment to take you to where we keep the Firebirds. We don't have that many but hopefully we'll have what you are looking for." He leaned over the desk and smiled at Mikaela, wiggling his fingers at her even though she was asleep. "Cutey."

"She is. I already have nightmares of what she'll be like when she's a teenager."

"How were you?" he asked. "They say kids act just like us to punish us for all the trouble we got up too." Rebecca flinched. "That bad?"

"Worse," she admitted as the door behind her opened.

"Charlie, this is Ms. Shooter. She needs the parts for the Firebird."

"I’ll get her taken care of, Uncle Hank!"

Rebecca started at that and before she could stop herself she turned and said, "You're a woman!"

Charlie looked down at herself and let out a huffing laugh. "Last I checked." She waved for Rebecca to follow her.

"Sorry," Rebecca said, hurrying with Mikaela's stroller to catch up to the other woman. Charlie was wearing a pair of grease-stained paints and a Rolling Stones t-shirt, her dark hair tied up in a messy ponytail with a Detroit Tiger's cap plunked on her head. 

"No worries," Charlie said. "You're better than the idiots that come in here and talk down to me, thinking I'm just here to get them coffee and the 'real men' will show up to help them." She snickered as she lead Rebecca into the lot, rows of broken down cars waiting for to be picked clean of their parts so that other vehicles might have a chance at a second life quickly surrounding the two of them. Off in the distance larger wrecks that would be turned into scrap towered over the massive salvage yard. "Gets real fun when I tell them I'm the owner of this place."

"You own this place?" Rebecca said, startled that someone so young could own the salvage yard. Charlie had to be around her age!

"Officially I'm co-owner with Hank. He's getting on in years, if you couldn't tell, and while I doubt he'll ever retire he wants to spend his time at the desk swapping stories with people, not filling out paperwork or walking around making sure the knuckleheads we hire are actually doing their job. I have been doing odd jobs for him since I was in high school and he finally gave me a controlling share in this place last year for my birthday. Said he wanted to make sure it was in good hands."

"Wow."

Charlie nodded. "Again, you’re better than the gearheads who I normally deal with. They call bullshit on me until i show them the door." They stopped by a Firebird that was missing half its driver’s side and Charlie popped the hood. "Alright, so what are you looking for?"

"Uh... these," Rebecca said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a crumpled piece of paper. Charlie took it and made a face.

"So basically you want an entire engine."

"...seriously?" Rebecca said, shoulders slumping. "He told me that he was almost done... that son of-" she stopped and looked down at Mikaela, "-gun."

Charlie smiled at that and began to go over the list again. "Well, maybe not a whole engine. Your husband write this?"

"He did. He had been working on it but now it’s my problem."

"Thought so. I think the ones with the question marks are parts he'd have liked to upgrade but wasn't sure about." She shut the hood and sighed. "But without seeing the car I can't be sure. And all of this… honestly buying a new car would be cheaper unless you are a collector or an enthusiast."

"Damn," Rebecca cursed. "I was hoping to sell that thing soon." 

"Need the money?" Charlie glanced at the baby.

"No," Rebecca admitted. "Life insurance has us covered good but I just... I don't want to look at the car anymore." She didn’t want to mention that now she couldn’t be sure that Colin had gotten the damn thing legally. She moved to grab the paper. "Thanks anyway."

Charlie though refused to hand the list back to her. “Where do you live?”

“Hmmm?”

“Where do you live?”

“Addams Road?” Rebecca said, not quite sure why she was asking.

“That’s only 20 minutes out. Jot down the address and I’ll come by Tuesday and take a look at the car myself. I can tell you what parts you really need and how much work it will take you. Can also see how bad the body is. If worst comes to worst and he left you with a junker then I’ll cut you a deal to sell me the whole thing for parts. Better than sinking good money after bad.”

“I can’t afford that,” Rebecca said. The life insurance was fine, Colin had gotten that from work, but there was only so much and she couldn’t go sinking it into such frivolous things like private consultants-

Charlie held up her hands and grinned. “No charge. Like I said it isn’t that far away and I’m honestly curious. You’ll still have to buy the parts but I don’t mind taking a look.”

Rebecca considered the offered for a few more seconds before finally nodding and rattling off her address.


	2. Expectations

Expectations

August 25th, 1991   
Brighton Falls

“I never really wanted to marry Colin,” Rebecca said, sitting on an old milk crate from a grocery store that had long closed down and watching as Charlie tinkered with the Firebird. It was something she was used to and not just because she had watched first her father and then Colin do that for years. Charlie had been coming over for the last few weeks after she had first come, whistled in appreciation, and stated that it would be a crime to let such a vehicle go to waste. 

“Then why did you?” Charlie asked, pulling her head out from under the hood and grabbed her beer, throwing back her head and taking a long swig. Rebecca watched as she swallowed, her own bottle held loosely in her hands. It had started off as just being polite; Charlie had that first time ended up staying 2 hours to tinker with the Firebird, examining all the parts, and Rebecca had offered her a drink. She’d accepted and the next time she’d come Rebecca had already had the bottles ready and offered to sit with her as she worked. It had just seemed odd to have someone working in her garage and she was puttering around inside, pretending they weren’t there. Mikaela would be placed in the playpen to entertain herself and Rebecca would keep Charlie company as she worked. They’d fallen into an easy friendship, chatting at Charlie worked about their lives. “I know it isn’t because of the cutey.”

Mikaela, as if sensing she was being talked about, let out a squeal and bapped her teddy bear with her chubby fists.

“No, nothing like that,” Rebecca said. She knew people now would assume that she’d gotten pregnant and been forced to marry Colin but they’d been together right out of high school and married a few years before the baby had come along. “It’s just…” she took a sip of her beer, giving herself another moment to collect her thoughts, “… it was what was expected you know?”

“You marrying Colin?” 

“Me marrying anyone. I didn’t grow up in Mission City or LA. Hell, I didn’t grow up in Brighton. Oak Ridge is… it’s 1950s Land.”

Charlie stopped looking at the carburetor and focused solely on her. “1950s Land?” she said, amused.

“You know, where it feels like everyone’s stuck in the era of Eisenhower and what the American Dream is supposed to be? I had to find a boyfriend in high school because if you didn’t pair up with someone there must have been something wrong with you. More people would talk if you didn’t go to make-out peak than if you did. And Colin was… nice. I liked him, don’t get me wrong. My type, I guess. But after high school he proposed and I couldn’t say no.”

“Why couldn’t you?” Charlie asked before quickly answering her own question. “Because that’s not what was expected, was it?”

“Nope,” Rebecca said, taking another swig of her beer. “So we got married and we moved out here and but even then there were expectations. Do your ‘wifely duties’ as my mom said. And don’t get me wrong… I love that I got Mikaela out of it-“ The baby turned her head but when it was clear there was nothing coming her way like food or new toys she went back to babbling to her stuffed animals, “-but I was just… doing what was expected, you know? Wifely duties… that’s a good word for it. You follow?”

“Yeah, I get it,” Charlie said in a slightly far off voice, it clear from her tone she understood but didn’t want to talk about it.

Rebecca looked at her watch. She didn’t feel like being alone quite yet.“You hungry? I was going to make supper, you’re welcome to stay.”

Charlie bobbed her head back and forth before finally nodding. “Sure.”

September 6th, 1991  
Brighton Falls

“Dear lord this is cheesy,” Rebecca complained as she and Charlie watched the Tanner family get into yet another sitcom-standard problem. 

“I think that’s required for sitcoms,” Charlie said, putting her feet up on the table and leaning back on the sofa. Mikaela had been put to bed and the two of them were relaxing in Rebecca’s living room, watching the ABC Friday lineup. “Sanitized view of what life should be like. If they actually showed what a family would be like with that set up they’d traumatize the kids.”

“And showing kids that they need to speak only in catchphrases isn’t traumatizing?” Rebecca teased, rolling her head so she could look at Charlie. “How rude? Have mercy?”

“Fair point but you get what I’m saying,” Charlie said. “Sitcoms and shows never show you what family is really like. Take mine… my mom was engaged to Ron and in a sitcom he would have instantly replaced my dad and I would have loved him so much and gone to him for all my problems and he would have gotten squeamish when I talked about periods and tampons-“ Rebecca snorted at that and Charlie wiggled her eyebrows a few times. “You know I am right on that point.”

“Oh, completely.”

“But it wasn’t like that. I hated Ron for a long time… I don’t even really like him a ton right now, to be honest. I… tolerate him. Like a neighbor that happens to live in my house.”

“And have sex with your mom.”

Charlie shuddered at that. “Do NOT joke about that. Ugh… ugh!” Charlie gagged and Rebecca fought down a peel of laughter. “But you get it though, right?” Charlie finally asked. “Life in sitcoms… they give us what is expected. Not what reality is. In real life those kids would need therapy so bad and you know Danny and Joey would be sleeping with each other.” 

Rebecca started at that. “Seriously?”

“They live in San Francisco. And Joey is just some guy… Jessie is Danny’s brother-in-law so it makes sense he is around but Joey? Why is he there? Why do they insist he is ‘Uncle Joey’? That is code. No… in real life those two are a couple but they have to keep it quiet because Danny has his career.”

“Right,” Rebecca said before slowly shaking her head. “But no.” Charlie gave her a look that Rebecca couldn’t quite read and she shrugged. “Joey and Danny would be terrible couple. Danny’s too uptight and Joey is too wild and carefree. Opposites don’t attract like that.” She rotated her body so she was facing Charlie, attention fully pulled away from the Tanner household. “It works better when there is common interest.”

“And a connection?” Charlie said quietly, leaning in a touch closer.

“Yeah.”

The two stared at each other for a moment.

“So… I should probably go,” Charlie finally said but when she moved to rise Rebecca grabbed her hand. She knew in that moment she had a choice. A big one. A dangerous one. If she had read things wrong then she was putting herself at risk. But if she had read things right and decided to push on… nothing would be the same again. An easy life, an accepted life? Out of her reach forever. The world expected certain things.

“You… can stay the night. If you want.”

Charlie looked at her… and her smile was like the sun.

And when she finally leaned in and kissed her Rebecca realized that she had only been partly right. She did have a type she was attracted to… though it wasn’t just men though that fit it. 

To hell with expectations.

**Author's Note:**

> So this all came about from me wanting to do something in the world of Transformers and explore how things could have been different. My original thought was to have Mikaela's mom remarry and get with Agent Fowler from Prime and that would instill in Mikaela a respect for authority, so that she wants to be a federal agent when she grows up and how that would change things. But as I was puzzling that over and also thinking about watching a movie the next day my mind turned to the Bumblebee Movie and inspiration struck: what if Charlie ended up coming into Mikaela's life? Not just how that would change Mikaela... but how would it change the series if suddenly there was an adult in 2007 who utterly trusted Bee and the Autobots? Someone who had dealt with them before?
> 
> I debated having Charlie adopt Mikaela after both her parents died but I ended up deciding that it would be far more interesting to have Mikaela's mother be around and her being the reason Charlie and Mikaela ended up connected. 
> 
> This series will be a bunch of short snapshot chapters, the first few setting up this new reality before we get into the films and see how a Mikaela who has known Charlie is different... and how she will make the world a better place for the Autobots.


End file.
